Friday Round Up

Do you remember the music video for “Bad Motherfucker”? It was all one continuous shot from a first person perspective, done as an action scene with parkour and fighting. Well, those filmmakers crowdsourced a full movie utilizing that idea. Above is the trailer for their movie, Hardcore. It’s an interesting idea although I do wonder if the concept could get disorienting or boring at an hour and a half. Still, it’s innovative. And violent. Well, read on for the latest on Star Wars, Godzilla, music game track lists, lawsuits on the rights to G.I. Joe, a wild Akira rumor, and a lot more.

MOVIES

There’s been no official word from Netflix or Lucasfilm yet but supposedly all six Star Wars movies are coming to the streaming service next month, probably to better engage the audience for December’s Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. Website Exstreamist tracks everything coming to the streaming service and captured the official-looking image above. Still, grain of salt until there’s official word.

According to Deadline, Legendary Pictures has moved its upcoming King Kong movie, Skull Island, to Warner Bros. for distribution. The reason? So that they could then do a crossover with the other movie they both work on, Godzilla. Supposedly, there’s even been script changes to Skull Island to mention Monarch, the giant-monster fighting organization mentioned in the last Godzilla movie. Could be cool, but now I’m wondering just HOW BIG will the new King Kong be? Bigger than Skyscrapers?!

Note from Vincent: There was an image of Apocalypse that Chris talked about, but Fox anti-piracy people asked us to take it down. Yes, they asked months after the trailer came out and this image had been floating around. I have no idea what could it could do, but it’s gone.

Above is a newly leaked picture of Apocalypse from the next X-Men movie. He looks a LOT better than the purple “Ivan Ooze” image first seen in Entertainment Weekly. So does he go through a change? Is Fox listening to fans and redoing his look? Not sure, but if he looks like this that’s a huge improvement.

Above, we mentioned how Legendary moved King Kong to Warner Bros. Apparently, their relationship with Universal is not going well. Universal refused to finance any of director Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming movie, Crimson Peak, because they thought the budget was too high for an R-rated movie. Then they didn’t want to do King Kong at the budget Legendary wants. And the latest casualty? Pacific Rim 2. Even though it made a lot of money worldwide, Universal has lost interest in doing the sequel and so it is now indefinitely on hold. However, del Toro says it will still get made.

Take this rumor with a pound of salt, but supposedly director Christopher Nolan is meeting with people at Warner Bros. to potentially direct a live-action Akira movie, based on the comics by Katsuhiro Otomo. I’m okay with the idea of a live-action Akira movie, but I think the most important thing is to not whitewash the casting. Keep it accurate to the story and have it set in Neo-Tokyo. We’ll see.

TV

Legends of Tomorrow, the CW’s next spinoff from Arrow and Flash, shared the above image of Hawkman and Hawkgirl who will be part of the team of time-travelling heroes. Surprisingly accurate to the source material. The show is planned to air midseason but the characters are expected to appear in one of the parent shows before January.

BBC News is reporting that actress Jenna Coleman will leave Doctor Who at the end of the ninth season (which starts this Saturday) and before the annual Christmas special. Coleman has played the Doctor’s companion, Clara Oswald, for three seasons. But in a weird bit of news, BBC entertainment won’t comment on whether she’s leaving or not. So one part of BBC won’t talk to the other. Weird!

Okay, this piece of news is just depressing. Actress Jennifer Lien, who played Kes on Star Trek: Voyager, was arrested in Tennessee for apparently exposing herself to a 13-year old. I don’t know whether this is substance abuse or mental illness but I’ve never seen a Star Trek regular fall so low before. Hopefully she and her victim both get the help they need.

MERCH

The creator of G.I. Joe is suing Hasbro to get the rights back, according to court papers he’s filed. Stan Weston, 82, pitched the doll back in 1963 to the company that is now known as Hasbro. He was paid a flat fee for his idea for the military soldier with swivel-arm grip but claims they reneged on later royalty payments. He says the copyright on the idea would revert to him in 2020 and he’s suing now to resolve the issue before he gets too old, so that he can leave his family with something. His big problem is the original contract is not physically around anymore with either him or Hasbro. It’ll be interesting to see if they make a settlement offer or fight it.

After being gone for years, suddenly both Rock Band and Guitar Hero return next month. It’s a tricky choice if you can only afford one. Both have pretty robust track lists. Here’s Rock Band’s track list and here is Guitar Hero’s. I am having a tough time deciding which is better overall. Guitar Hero updated their guitar controller so that’s one difference: they now have 2 rows of 3 buttons so it’s more like playing actual chords. Also, they will have some sort of ability to play along with music videos. But no drums. However, they will have video of a live crowd reacting to how well you play. So they’ve definitely made big changes. Rock Band has a deeper DLC track list to buy from and are the people who originated these rhythm games so they generally have tighter control.

Mondo traditionally made pop culture prints by great artists but lately they’ve expanded into high-end toys like Iron Giant and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and apparel. They have a line of sweaters and scarves based on Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So if you want to be warm and stand out this Fall/Winter, take a look at their clothes here.

There’s a big change in the status quo for both mutants and Inhumans in Marvel comics after Secret Wars ends. Apparently the Terrigen Mists that unlock Inhumans’ abilities will also have turned mutants infertile. So now the X-Men hate the Inhumans. Sounds dark. I wonder if Marvel is intentionally tanking their X-Men characters so that the movies don’t have any recent stories to draw from?

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I hate hate HATE this whole Inhumans vs. X-Men thing, mainly because it’s only been a few years since they resolved the No More Mutants thing where, you guessed it, mutants were sterilized. Sure, this is like a combination of that story plus the Legacy Virus, but the Legacy Virus was scary because it debuted at the height of the AIDS scare. It’s not such a terrifying concept in this day and age, so they had to add the sterilization angle. I’ve often said that I believe the comic fan cycle is about 20 years. After that, everything becomes “been there, done that”. Sadly, it seems like that cycle is now being shortened to 10 yeasr.